Review of SanDisk Sansa Fuze 8 GB Digital Player / Radio - 8 GB Flash

I never had a need for a digital music player, as I am consistently around the radio all of the time, I felt spending money on something I would barely use would be sort of wasteful, at least for me anyway.

About 2 months ago though I found some old CD's in my room and felt a little sad about the fact that I did not have a CD player in my car to listen to my old school music, and that was when I got to thinking about a digital player. I figured in my car it would be nice to play old songs that the radio no longer airs.
I had these points added up on a survey site that I have been using for years, and never cashed in on those points, so I figured why not cash them in and get a digital music player; so that was what I did. I ended up choosing the SanDisk Sansa Fuze 8 GB Digital player / radio - 8 GB flash.
 
It seemed like a good choice because it not only would play music, but it would allow me to listen to the radio (not that I would need it for that, but the option is there). Besides playing music, the Sansa Fuze would also allow me to store photos, and watch movies. It's also got a built in voice recorder, which is not needed but nice to have I suppose, for college kids and what not.

I had no clue how to use the thing, as I am very behind in the world of digital music players. I called it an MP3 and someone looked at me like I had fallen from a prehistoric era.

Anyhow, once in hand I was pretty impressed with just how nice, small and sleek the little thing was. I could easily tote this around in my pocket if I needed to.

The screen size is a little small, but very bright and easy to see no matter what the lighting conditions are. The screen however would not really do any justice for photographs, or watching video clips. It's there though as an option to you, if you want to actually use it.

With the 8GB flash, it allows you to store up to 2,000 songs, which is beyond more than enough.

Ease of Use:
 
I did not even need to read the instruction manual to grasp how the player worked. Its all right there, and so simple that they should label this one as plug and play.

Basically you need to download songs you want first. Once you have a good sized library of songs, you can now plug your Sansa Fuze into your computer using the included USB cable. One the PC recognizes the device, you can then simply open up your music file, and drag and drop them into the music folder in the Sansa Fuze. Once the music has transferred, you can unplug it. The player will them update itself with your music, which only take a few seconds. After that, you are ready to begin listening to your songs.

You can use the included ear buds, or you can buy an adapter for your car to play the songs directly on your cars stereo. I used a Cassette adapter by iPlay, and it works brilliantly.

Issues?
So far I have not encountered a single issue with the player. Battery life is decent, although it takes quite some time for the battery to recharge to full power once it is drained. Other than the battery taking its sweet time to charge, the player has absolutely no flaws.

Navigating through the menus is also really easy, and you will not really encounter a need to drag you to the instruction manual. It's just a very simple, very efficient little player, and I am glad I finally graduated from radios and commercials, to fully uninterrupted music.